Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has taken one step closer to its dream of 800,000 global annual sales by signing a letter of intent to expand its manufacturing base in western Slovakia.
The plans for the new factory were confirmed late last night, ending months of rumours JLR was exploring building a new plant in Poland, US and Mexico. Now with the letter of intent and new feasibility study it’s almost certain JLR will push ahead with its plans of opening a new 300,000-a-year plant at Nita in western Slovakia.
Originally, it was thought that the new factory might specialise in building JLR’s steel body cars like the Land Rover Discovery and Discovery Sport but it has now been revealed that the new plant would be geared up to build its latest, lightweight aluminium Jaguar and Land Rover models, with the first cars coming off the line as early as 2018.
This means production of the all-new long-awaited replacement for the iconic Defender is now almost certain to move from the UK to the central European country.
Speaking on the announcement of the new plant Jaguar’s CEO, Ralf Spen said: “The expansion of our business globally is essential to support its long-term resilient growth. As well as creating additional capacity, it allows us to invest in the development of more new vehicles and technologies, which support jobs in the UK.
“With its established premium automotive industry, Slovakia is an attractive potential development opportunity for us. The new factory will complement our existing facilities in the UK, China and India and the one under construction in Brazil.”
As well as the Slovakian plant, JLR will soon sub-contract manufacturing to Magner Steyr’s plant in Austria to help it meet demand.
It’s not been announced what specific models will be produced at the new plant but, as well as the new Defender, the all-new replacement for the Discovery is also a prime candidate.
Over the next five years the Jaguar Land Rover group has an incredible 50 ‘product actions’ that include mild and major facelifts, replacing old models and entering new segments.
Jaguar Land Rover isn’t the first car-maker to investigate Slovakia as a new home. Volkswagen Group already builds numerous models there including the Touareg and Audi Q7 SUVs.
Kia, meanwhile, is said to produce 300,000 cars a year there, narrowly exceeding the 250,000 cars built annually there by PSA Peugeot-Citroen.